Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Saudi Aramco signed a cooperation deal to explore potential opportunities for collaboration in the natural gas and LNG sectors. Under the terms of the agreement, ADNOC and Aramco will jointly assess investment opportunities across the LNG value change, partnering on techno-economic feasibility studies and exchanging information about LNG growth markets.
The deal follows ADNOC’s announcement of its integrated gas strategy, which is designed to help Abu Dhabi sustain LNG production to 2040 while allowing ADNOC to get involved with incremental LNG and gas-to-chemicals grow opportunities where they arise. The company said the deal will allow it to explore LNG investment opportunities and create additional value from LNG trading expansion in anticipation of the role Asian markets could play in driving LNG demand.
“This agreement reinforces our strategy to undertake partnerships with forward-thinking partners who can help accelerate access to new growth centers of global demand,” Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE minister of state and ADNOC group CEO, said in a statement.
Saudi Aramco has been actively seeking investment opportunities in upstream ventures, including gas. The company previously signed a deal with Shell in March to pursue international gas opportunities, overseeing upstream development, liquefaction projects, and other aspects of the gas value chain. It also inked an LNG memorandum with Russian LNG exporter Novatek in February to cooperate on international projects.
Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said that the long-anticipated initial public offering for the state-owned company, which was postponed indefinitely this summer, will likely take place in 2021 depending on market conditions and only after the acquisition of a 70% stake in petrochemicals company Sabic. Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Khalid al-Faith said last month that the Sabic deal would take at least 18 months to close, a process that would include regulatory approvals from anti-competition authorities.
Speaking about the ADNOC deal, Nasser said in a statement that joint cooperation would support the corporate transformation strategies of both companies.
“Our partnership with ADNOC continues to strengthen,” Nasser said. “We have shared strategic interest to expand our gas businesses, and this new agreement underlines our confidence in strong global gas demand growth.”